The invention is directed to rimless eye glasses and more specifically to means for fixedly attaching temples and bridges directly to the lens of the eye glasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,898 issued to Hafner teaches the use of clamps and screws to attached the bridge and temple hinges to the lens of rimless eye glasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,020 issued to Lindberg et al. teaches elongated slits for attaching the bridge and temple's hinges by a "U" shaped bent wire loop portions having a resilient expansion force (tension) on the outside surfaces of the "U" shaped loop for maintaining the loops and associated bridge or temple hinge connection to the lens. There is a disadvantage to this type of connections in that it can be easily disengaged from the lens as there is no locking mechanism to prevent up and down motion on the bridge and temples from loosening or disengaging the wire to lens connection.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,141 issued to Kobayashi teaches temple hinge and nose piece attachment to rimless glasses by means of bolts passing through the lens and nuts holding them in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,870 issued to Masunaga teaches bridge and temple hinge connections to the lens of rimless eye glasses by a round wire formed bridge and temple hinge connected at three points on the lens of rimless glasses. The connections for bridge and temple teaches a hinge are made with a "U" shaped wire biased against the lens edge by tension provided by the distal end of the wire inserted into an aperture in the lens. The distal ends of the inserted wires have a polycarbonate buffer sleeve for preventing slackness between the lens aperture and the bridge and temple hinge ends. Even with the improvement of the sleeve over the distal end of the inserted wire, there is a tendency for the wire to loosen and become dislodged from the lens and render the eye glasses useless for the purpose intended. The ends of the bridge and temple hinge are bent against the edge of the lens. The bridge and temple hinge are held in place by the bent wire forming pressure between the lens aperture and the lens edge. This connection applies a greater stress in the lens material. This reference teaches a cylindrical sleeve and a cylindrical lens aperture and does not specify an interference fit between the wire, sleeve and lens. The only force preventing the wire from becoming disloged from the lens is the relative minimal friction force deloped by the bending stress in the wire.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,706 issued to Izumitani teaches rimless eye glasses with apertures through the narrow vertically sides of the lens and with protrusions extending from the bridge and temple inserted into the apertures and adhered thereto by adhesive means.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,280 issued to Herman teaches a plurality of apertures through the lens of rimless glasses. Separate pairs of apertures are used to attach the temple and two pairs of apertures are used to attach the bridges.
There is a continuing need to improve the bridge and temple hinge attachment to the lens of rimless eye glasses to provide a more secure joint between the components, minimize the weight of the eyeglasses, and to minimize the required structure fir styling reasons. The preferred embodiments of the instant invention proved an advancement in this art.